Veteran’s Day, an intense moment to feel gratitude for those who fought on your behalf—an ongoing reality lost on all too many, especially on a generation bedazzled on reality programming and the cult of celebrity.

One can denounce war, turn the other cheek, or appease the aggressor. In the end, when the sword is at your neck, you must make an existential choice: live or die.

Of course, one can point to Gandhi, for example, where nonviolent civil disobedience eventually won the day over British colonial rule. But would this same strategy have worked against a totalitarian regime? 

Unless one has faced mortal combat, there is no way to fully appreciate the sacrifice of those who did. So, when your moment of right action comes, do so with honor and awareness. Ignorance in this world is now no longer an option.

Twenty years ago the Berlin wall came tumbling down, mercifully freeing people from a police state psychosis.

There are other walls, invisible structures that are no less destructive to society—and that is mass social conditioning. If you buy into the program, products, and propaganda without looking through the wonderful and unbiased lens of awareness, then you have been co-opted. Or, you many have also built your own wall with the mortar and bricks of questionable belief systems where nothing gets out, or in.

Artists, if you have been doing your work, then you have confronted many walls on your journey. The question is always the same. What did you do about it? Did you step up, or sell out?

Freedom fighters enter the fray with their lives on the line; the true artist can do no less.

In recent times, how often have you heard (or uttered) this virulent query: How’s that workin’ out for ya?

Of course, mindlessly repeating often used phrases may keep you connected to your group, or gang, or generation ‘whatever’; doing so, however, is not the path to original work.

Suggestion: the next time you catch yourself about to enter the land of cliches—stop. Reconsider and articulate in your own words. If none come, then this is your wake up call. You have been absorbed. Fortunately, knowing that this situation exists is also the catalyst for extricating yourself from the morass of mass social conditioning.

The other day I saw an ad for a spiffy GPS that helped you navigate to your intended destination. One of the points made in the ad was this: studies showed that you are more likely to go somewhere new if you already know how to get there.

Knowing the route to your destination is helpful. But when I speak of dharma—the destination of your work, your mission on earth, then that is another matter entirely. There are no road maps for this adventure; you must take the plunge and discover your path on your own.

Risky? Maybe. But what choice do you have?

Not knowing is the mystery, and the mystery leads to original work.

The other day I saw a bumper sticker: it read (to paraphrase): what’s the point of being well-adjusted within a society that is mentally disturbed?

If you go along with the crowd, you cannot create original work, you cannot muster original thinking, you cannot evolve. To lead takes stamina, conviction, and purpose beyond the mundane.

Have you ever had an original thought, insight, or an epiphany? Original means something unencumbered by what preceded it; original is not a conclusion, but a revelation that takes off in a new direction.

Go on. Poke yourself into the demanding questions of your life; the alternative is unacceptable.